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You guys don't know me but I read this board all the time and I feel like this is the only place where I can speak my mind freely. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced or is experiencing a mid-twenties life crisis. I seem to be going through what everyone describes as a mid-life crisis but I'm only 25 years old. I have a great professional job that doesn't pay very much now but will eventually pay in the 200,000+ range. But I'm gone away from home a lot and I don't really enjoy it, I really want to quit but I'm afraid of starting over. I can't do drugs with my current job (really I can't I'm a pilot) but I used to and I really miss it. It's not that I want to quit just so I can do drugs, but that's one of several reasons. Any thoughts?

Well, just think what it would be like for somebody who is twenty years older going through the same thing. You are very lucky that you have your youth. If you truly don't like your job, you can't force yourself do it your whole life. You know that. Is there any job you can get that is close to home? Flight instructor? I don't know what the qualifications are for that but my point is just to look at all possible options for where you can use your skills. If you can't find a suitable piloting job then you are in luck: you are young and have a solid means of generating cash to go get credentials in another field. You are obviously a talented, intelligent person with real potential. You can do whatever you want, even if it isn't flying a plane. Just decide what you would want to do and make a plan.

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Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I have been learning how to design web pages and I just bought Dreamweaver MX, so I'm going to try my hand at freelance web design. I'm moving to Arkansas next month from Cleveland, Ohio. I think that has a lot to do with my mood: I hate the city, especially Cleveland...I can't wait to get back to the woods. By the end of the year I'm going to turn in my letter of resignation. First on my to-do list: roll a joint!

At then least you can do drugs. Hallucinogenic drugs are for some reason discouraged by the FAA. And yeah get the hell out of Cleveland. I am happy with my humble job as a web developer, I think you'll like it.

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Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man. For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire. Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

I am kind of in the same boat. I am also a pilot, and I miss the herb a REAL lot! But I have weighed the costs many times and I just can't justify giving up this job just to smoke pot. I am a charter pilot for a private company and usually spend about 4-5 weeks in the Carribean, a couple weeks in Aspen or Vail or Vegas and wherever else the rich wish to be taken. Meanwhile all expenses are paid. So lets be realistic. We both know that flying is an easy way to make money (after you pay your dues.) We get paid to go on vacation for Christ's sake. People would kill for this job. But then again, I am single without children and I actually LIKE this job. I am on call everyday of the week, and the idea of getting called last minute to go to the Olympics or Vail and ski doens't bother me a bit. If you have a family, it is not a very good way to live. If you like to be home and have a regular schedule it is not a very good way to live. If you like eating new foods, seeing new places, swimming in the tropics, skiing in the mountains, (AND GETTING PAID FOR IT!) it is a DAMN good job. I am thankful as hell I chose this career. Sooooo I've given up herb. In its place I meditate. I know it is not the same, but I guarantee you that after a month of getting stoned every night in my apartment, I would much rather be back on the beach meditating in ST. Martin or skiing in Utah. And landing a jet at 150 mph is kind of a rush too. So, my friend, you are young, and as my father would say, "You have the world by the balls" so you can do whatever the hell you want to do. Don't ever spend your life doing something that you don't want to be doing! But for me, if I were to give up flying I would have to replace that rush with something, and I don't think that smoking pot would do it.

My job is a little different than yours, flyguy. I work for a regional airline, and my "vacation" spots are Indianapolis and Kalamazoo. It's really not a bad job, but it just doesn't fit me. I like to be home and have a routine. I'm sure the guys below me on the seniority list would agree. The straw that broke the camel's back was the House passing the bill allowing pilots to carry guns. I want to be gone before that becomes a reality. Some of the guys I fly with are total psychos, and most of the time the person I'm flying with I just met 20 minutes ago, so I don't really know them at all. Wouldn't be too hard for a terrorist to get hired by a smaller airline. And for me the rush is gone, it's like driving a car. I used to look forward to going on a trip and now I hate even thinking about going into work. I guess the point of all my rambling is to each his own. I think it's a bigger rush to explore the invisible landscape of your inner psyche than it is flying a hollow tube around the sky. Congrats on your great flying job, though. Is your company hiring?

Bummer that your job sucks. But then again, you are flying for a regional airline so what can you expect. Fly as captain in a small charter operation going to places that you have never heard of with a "green" pilot sitting in the right seat and it will be anything but dull. Having flown charter, the only reason that I would ever fly for the airlines is to hook up with flight attendants. What I am trying to say is that maybe you should give charter a try, and I don't mean the fractionals like Execjet or Ratheon. With charter you get to fly famous people to cool places and then hang out for a few days, but alas... no schedule. So as long as you have made it this far in aviation I would try other options before giving up on flying totally. But If you DO decide to give it up, DO A GREAT BIG BONG HIT FOR MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

Actually screw what I just said...I would much rather be cruisin' down the strip on my Hog smokin' a fatty. Smokin' herb and eating shrooms is much more fun than flying airplanes. But then after you do quit, walk into some terminal with your uniform on all tanked up and smelling like booze and just stumble around the airport slurring and asking people the time and have someone film it like they did on The Man Show that one time. That was a riot.

I dont know if teh following comments help, but I will offer them anyways. I went through a midlife crisis starting in my early 30's , i am now 40. I believe i am finally getting to the other-side. When you do and I wish you luck, it i smuch better, happier, spiritual and the true essence of life.

I believe that there are 3 times that an individual, especially in america can truly be free. There are some of us who are born with a natural "awarenes"" meaning at peace with the essence of their existence. This country in particular has created a machine which I term the machine of "liabilities". for some reason many are condition early to live to work rather than work a little to live. We are taught that , goals, achievments from a material sense and hierarchial sense are what is important.

The first opportunity that one has to be free, and this seemingly, in my experience can occur more with those who are more right hemispheric dominant. i would venture to guess that there may be some of these types frequenting these boards. these individuals at a young age have an awarness and an enlightenment and see the "system" for what it really is.....a black hole, a hamster track, or as Camus wrote so eloquently, akin to the greek mythos, The Myth Of Sysiphus. Thos ethat have this awareness usually dont get caught up in the routine or the typical "American beauty" lifestyle and they venture out on there spiritual fulfilment at a young age. They can be free because thay dont get absorbed in the liabilitie sthat we all seem to immerse ourselves in. In retropsect, i was like this but for some reasons i got caught up in the heavy "goal" mindset, school, degree, professionalism, money, material objects. i have them now and thsi rbing sme to the third opportunity that one can become free. i am now embarking on a path that has already been bringing me more inner peace than any of the institutionalized life processescould have ever brought forth. Luckily, monetarily, I can now give up my post doctoral profession and embark.

The second tim eto be free and probably the hardest is a period of time at which you probably are. You have not quite amassed the monetary security that you would like to live your life the way you think you might like to, or as your frineds or peers do. you will need to formulate a plan and then follow it. Either set a goal for fiscal security. Dont be too high or you will waste most of your energy trying to amass numbers and material thing sthat are menaingless. Once you reach that goal, and probably a good idea to start evoolving now , then set off on your spirtual path. The hardest thing for those that begin the "institutionalized," way of life creating liabilities on top of liabilities, is to completely drop it or them. However, other than those that never entered the "game, i believe that this can be a way to a true spiritual path that creates satisfaction and inner peace rather than continuing too long gaining the monetary security. too often, those efforts destroy your health and teh years with which you can evolve and then enjoy guiding others.

Getting to the otherside, this period can be a period of great anxiety, depression at times and it is not easy. you will have to , at times, completely reject, the way of life that most of those that exist in a "group-think" world exist. You may be ostracized by so-called friends, maybe some family members and may , at time sfeel alone. However, once you get to the otherside you will find the remaining years of your life to be the most fulfilling. I think this is what you are trying to explain. i think you will be happier becoming a guide for others enlightenement.

Thanks, llib, that really does help. I've always felt and been told that I am a good teacher. Especially when I used to be a flight instructor I was always requested by all the students. I recently paid off all of my credit card debt and built up my savings, and now I'm trying to get rid of my student loans. I should be completely debt-free by the end of the year and I think then I will be able to quit my job and start out on my spiritual path. If I ever make it to the other side I'll teach others how to do the same.